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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27683500">Screaming in silence</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Multifandom_damnation/pseuds/Multifandom_damnation'>Multifandom_damnation</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The New Mutants (2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Developing Friendships, Emotional Baggage, Emotionally Repressed, Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, On the Run, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Team as Family</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 01:22:45</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,287</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27683500</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Multifandom_damnation/pseuds/Multifandom_damnation</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Roberto hates hiking, but if there's one thing that he hates more than hiking through high grasses and dense forest and rough terrain, it's his new-found friends obviously suffering him and him not having any idea of how to help them.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Roberto da Costa &amp; Rahne Sinclair, Roberto da Costa &amp; Sam Guthrie</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>30</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Screaming in silence</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I don't know why I wrote this haha. I just needed more content of this movie. I'm hopefully going to go and see it on Wednesday because our theatres have just opened up. Anyway, this was occasionally a drag to write, but I'm pretty happy with the finished product, and I hope that you enjoy it!!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It took becoming an accidental murderer, being held hostage and experimented on, and then escaping the horror house facility he had called his home to become a wanted nomad with some other fucked-up weirdos for Roberto to discover that he absolutely <em>despised</em> hiking.</p>
<p>That's not to say that he wasn't an active guy. He loved playing soccer. He got pretty good at basketball during the copious amounts of free time during his tenure at the facility. He considered himself a not-too-bad sprinter and could run rather far distances without getting tired. But hiking? There was just something about the uneven terrain and rugged landscape and innumerable mosquitoes that made him want to scream.</p>
<p>He was currently trudging through tall grasses with trees on either side of him, swatting angrily at annoying flies and hungry mosquitoes as he patrolled the area near where they were sleeping. It was supposed to be an important job, to ensure that if any of Essex's men were in the area, they wouldn't be caught off guard in the middle of the night, but it really just felt like a punishment. </p>
<p>He was too busy being frustrated with the bugs to be concerned with the creaking of twigs to his right, and a lone wolf emerged from the underbrush behind him, nose to the ground, eyes glinting sharply in the sunset light, footsteps near silent on the underbrush.</p>
<p>"I don't know why it's almost always the two of us who are stuck with the look-out duty," he complained as his foot sank into a puddle of mud. "<em>You</em>, I understand, because you're a literal wolf and all, but <em>me</em>? I'm <em>useless</em>."</p>
<p>The wolf made a sound that he could only assume was laughter as it burrowed its nose in the dirt, tail swishing behind it as the long grasses bent beneath its feet. "You better not be laughing at me," he said. "I'm being serious. Sam would have been of more use than me, being from Kentucky and all. Even the girls would be better at this than me."</p>
<p>He stumbled over a twisted root that rose out from the ground like a hand to grab him, and he caught himself on the sap-sticky trunk of a tree, and he glared at it as the wolf strolled past him, ignoring his plight. "You know, sooner or later, Essex isn't going to be our biggest problem," he continued as he grimaced and wiped his hands on his pants. "We've got no food, no money, no place to stay. If Essex doesn't kill us, starvation and hypothermia will. Well, not me. I don't have to worry about hypothermia."</p>
<p>Huffing, the wolf waited for him to catch up before it brushed its side against his legs. He sighed as he reached down and she nuzzled her nose into his palm. "If Illy were here, she probably would have chopped my head off. So thanks for not biting me."</p>
<p>He left the wold behind as it snorted in acknowledgment and wandered off to sniff curiously at the base of a tree. He glowered at his sticky hands now dark with dirt and continued on his half-hearted patrol despite his feet aching and his belly growling.</p>
<p>They walked together in silence for the next ten minutes, mindlessly patrolling the area, until he no longer heard the gentle footsteps behind him and turned around.</p>
<p>The wolf had vanished and in its place stood Rahne, her ears pointed, her teeth sharp, her eyes animalistic, her snout-like whiskered nose twitching as she half crouched in the tall grasses. Roberto waited for a little while until it was obvious that they weren't going to get anywhere fast. "Well?" he prompted. "What is it?"</p>
<p>Her brow furrowed deeply as she tilted her head to the side. "Do you smell that?" She asked with a faint lisp, her long tongue cramped behind her sharp teeth.</p>
<p>Roberto screwed up his face. "No? If you can smell it, then there's no way that I can smell it, wolf girl," he said as he stepped towards her. "What are you smelling?"</p>
<p>Sniffing the air, Rahne's tongue darted out from between her teeth to taste the air and licked at her lips. "Soot," she said. "Ash. Smoke."</p>
<p>"Wait," Roberto frowned. "You mean, like a <em>fire</em>?"</p>
<p>"I don't know," she shook her head. "I can't be sure."</p>
<p>"Well, where's it coming from?" Roberto demanded, swivelling around as if that could possibly help him at all. </p>
<p>As she sniffed one last time at the bar, a grim expression came over her face and she pointed back the way they came. "Back there, that way."</p>
<p>He looked between her outstretched finger and the direction she was pointing with mildly dawning horror. "Are you <em>serious</em>?"</p>
<p>She turned to look at him sternly for a long moment as the two of them exchanged a glance. "We should go," she said as she reached out to take his arm and thought better o it, lowering her hands to her side. "Come on, let's go. Run, now."</p>
<p>When she took off at a sprint, Roberto was scrambling to follow after her, having much more difficulty traversing the rough and uneven terrain, most of the raised roots and large stones hidden under the long grasses.</p>
<p>Eventually, Roberto finally emerged from the tree-line after Rahne, huffing and panting and every nerve in his bod singing with a deep ache. He had expected to find the little abandoned cabin they had found for the night in flames, or his friends half lying on the long grass, charred to death and half trapped inside the burning building, slamming a fist into the door and screaming to be let out.</p>
<p>But everything seemed almost frighteningly normal. The cabin was the same as when he left it. There was no screaming for help or any burned remains on the lawn. Rahne was crouched down and running her fingers through a weird substance that was falling lightly from the sky and landing gently on the ground like snow.</p>
<p>"What is that stuff?" Roberto asked, making a face as Rahne rubbed some between her fingers and bought it to her nose. "Ew. I don't think that's necessary."</p>
<p>She frowned in contemplation. "It smells familiar, like a distant memory," she stood, wiping her hands on her pants. "We should go in."</p>
<p>Once again, Roberto followed Rahne into the cabin, keeping one ear for any signs of trouble and also making sure that he didn't miss any signs of a struggle or of pain.</p>
<p>Rahne's footsteps were silent as she opened the door to the room that she and Dani were sleeping in. Dani was frowning slightly in her sleep with her brow furrowed and her hands slightly fisted in the thin threadbare blanket. She was covered in a light layer of the same snow-like dust from outside, and Rahne brushed some of it out of her face with the back of her hand.</p>
<p>Outside in the living room, Roberto checked on Illyana, still asleep on the couch with Lockheed tucked safely under her arm, covered in a much thinner but no less noticeable sheen of the strange dust.</p>
<p>When Rahne exited their room, the two of them walked side by side down the hall to the room he and Sam were sharing and tentatively creaked the door open.</p>
<p>Sam was curled up in a corner, half covered in a blanket, face twisted and contorted into a picture of fear and pain, writhing slightly on the ground with his fists clenched and his teeth grit. His hat toppled off his head and rolled just out of arms reach. The ground was vibrating with the strength of an earthquake as Sam's arms and torso ignited and shook with blinding colours.</p>
<p>The room, more than the others, was covered in a thick layer of dust that coated Sam and every inch of the room in a heavy blanket of grey-white specks.</p>
<p>"What the hell is this stuff?" Roberto muttered again, aghast.</p>
<p>"It's ash," said a voice from behind them, and they turned to see Illyana standing in the doorway, a smear across her face from where she had wiped away the ash, blearily looking at Sam writhing and covered in dust with interest.</p>
<p>It all suddenly clicked into place then, and Roberto turned to a wide-eyed Rahne. "It's Dani. She's doing this," he said, pushing her gently in that direction. "Go wake her up. Go!"</p>
<p>As Rahne wordlessly darted off back down the hall to their shared room, Roberto slowly took tentative steps into the room while Illyana stood at the doorway, hugging Lockheed to her chest and watching curiously.</p>
<p>He would be lying if he said that he wasn't just a little bit afraid as he crept across the rickety wooden floor to where Sam now slept curled up with his knees to his chest and his back to them, still vibrating violently.</p>
<p>Slowly, Roberto crouched down at Sam's trembling side, mindful of the ash, and tentatively reached a hand out to his side. "Sam," he said sharply but not unkindly as he shook him gently. When that got no response, he dug his fingers into Sam's shoulder and shook him harshly, shooting into his ear. "Sam!"</p>
<p>Gasping, Sam's eyes flew open so widely that Roberto thought they might pop out of his head, and the violent vibrating turned into a full-blown explosion and his arms erupted in vibrant light as he jettisoned the few feet back into the wall, rendering the wood.</p>
<p>A few moments later, the ash stopped falling from the ceiling and came to rest in a still layer on the ground.</p>
<p>Roberto looked at the path Sam's body had carved out of the fallen ash and at Sam himself, blinking and coughing to rid himself of the taste of ash in his mouth, protruding partially out of the wall and surrounded by pieces of shattered or splintered wood, sitting in a cloud of ash. "You good, man?"</p>
<p>"Yeah," Sam replied shakily, making Roberto think that he wasn't as good as he wanted the others to believe. "I'm fine."</p>
<p>Illyana said nothing, but she stood unmoving in the doorway as she watched Sam with and almost clinical expression. Sam met her eyes for a moment before he cleared his throat thickly and had to look away. She only moved aside when Dani and Rahne's heavy footsteps come charging towards them, and they pushed into the room, hand in hand, to come to a stop behind Roberto.</p>
<p>"Oh good," Rahne sighed when she caught sight of Sam <em>literally</em> lodged in the corner. "You're awake. I was worried," She didn't finish the sentence, but they all knew what she had been worried about.</p>
<p>Grimacing, Dani glanced around at the layer of ash that had settled heavily on Sam and on the ground. "Sorry," she said meekly, somehow getting even smaller.</p>
<p>"It's fine," Sam assured, even though he still looked like he had seen a ghost and came back from the dead all at the same time. "It happens."</p>
<p>"But it shouldn't happen," Dani said frustratingly. "I should be able to control it by now."</p>
<p>"Don't beat yourself up, Dani," Rahne comforted her as she wrapped an arm lightly around her waist. "You'll get there. Everyone learns to control their powers at a different pace. Yours are just more complicated than others."</p>
<p>"Speak for yourself," Illiana said without looking up from petting Lockheed.</p>
<p>She still didn't look happy about it, but Dani eventually gave in, lips pursed. "I guess you're right, but I'm still really sorry, Sam."</p>
<p>Sam shrugged but didn't answer. Roberto watched him closely "Are you sure you're alright? You look like crap."</p>
<p>"Yeah, Berto," Sam said, but there was a hint of warning in his voice. "Drop it."</p>
<p>"Drop it?" Roberto repeated, surprised. "Are you joking? Look, man, I don't know what kind of macho-man facade you're trying to put up right now, but you don't have to pretend that you're Mister Cool-Calm-and-Collected when you just had a crazy nightmare that was like some demon had a hold or your soul or some shit. You don't need to be ashamed of being afraid of something."</p>
<p>Abruptly, Sam extracted himself from the inside of the wall and stood, cutting Roberto off before he could finish his inspirational speech. "I'm going for a walk," he announced as he dusted himself off. "You know what? I think that I'm going to go and finish the patrol. We don't want Essex finding us, and we've got a big day ahead of us. You should rest."</p>
<p>"But, Sam..." Rahne tried to no avail.</p>
<p>"It'll be fine," he promised. "I'll be back before you know it."</p>
<p>And with that, he pushed past them out into the hall, leaving the girls standing there and Roberto crouched in the middle of the room. He stood when the front door slammed shut with an air of finality. </p>
<p>"Strange," Illyana said, sounding curious. "I'm afraid of the masked beasts who took me from my bed as a child, and he's afraid of ash. I guess not all monsters have to be literal, or real."</p>
<p>After a pause, Rahne sighed. "Sam's right. If he's going to take over the patrol, then we should get some sleep. It's no use for all of us being tired tomorrow."</p>
<p>"Good thinking," Roberto said. "Goodnight ladies."</p>
<p>"Goodnight Berto," they echoed as they followed Illiana down the hall and back to their own rooms, leaving Roberto behind in the room filled with ash.</p>
<p>Reluctantly, he slunk into his own corner and settles into a very restless night sleep as he waited for Sam to return.</p>
<p>He preferred hiking any day of the week over this anxious sort of waiting.</p>
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